Two-piece rail anchor



J. W. SKEEL TWO-PIECE RAIL ANCHOR March 13, 1945.

Filed Aug. 6, 1943 INVENTOR I John W Skeel m ms ATTORNEY v Patented Mar.13, 1945 I I v 2,311,413:

UNIT so STATE-S FATE-N r oFF-loE TWOr-PIEQE ANGHQR. John William S'keel,North Girard, Pa, assignor to The American Fork & Hoe Company, Cl'eve'-land, Ohio, a corporation" of Ohio Application August 6, 1943,, SerialNo. 497,101.

2 Claims.

My invention relates to railanchors and relates more particularly tosoecalled two-piece rail anchors of the type having a rail base clampand a. spring projected therethrough. and. extending beneath the r il.base to en a e: the pp site-v rail base. edge to.- lock the anchor. on.the rail.

An. object. of. my invention is, to provide an im proved rail anchor oithe two-piece; type. which will. be simple in. pplication, inexpensiveto manuiacture and durable an emcien in Another object of. my invent onis to. bromide an improved r il; anch-orof the. two-piece type in which,the; spring may bedriyen into the clamp and lockedon. the rail base. bya direct: blow f the-.snike-malll.-.

Another object of. my intention, is to; provide an improved, railanchor; oft-h o-piece type winch will resist distortion inuse.

Other o jec of my invention. and: the. invene tion itself. will becomeincreasin ly anpar ntirom a consi eration of the. fol-lowing:description and accompanying drawing, which:

Fig. 1 is. a side elevationalview showing theimproved; rail anchor-of myinvention applied to. the rail: and abutting across tie;

Fig. 2.. is a. vertical, sectional view taken on the line; 2P2, of: Fig.1;

Fig. 3.- iS, a. vertical sectional viewtaken on the line t Fig. 21;.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the anchor clamp; nd;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the rail anchor spring member.

My invention may be considered as an im provement in certain respectsover the two-piece anchors disclosed in patents to A. E. Fifield, Nos.2,036,031 and 2,031,621, dated March 31, 1936, and May 25,1937,respectively.

Referring now to the drawing, in which like parts are designated by likereference characters,

' at II) I show a rail of conventional type having its rail flange Hengaged by the rail anchor I2 of my invention. This rail anchor, asshown, consists of a substantially W-shaped clamp element I3 adapted tohave a clip I projected through a perforation designated at l5 in Fig. 3provided between the clamp l3 and the underside of the rail baselfi'when the clamp is secured to the rail flange H and the clipprojected through the clamp and under the rail base.

As illustrated herein, the clamp I3 is a gem erally W-shaped memberhaving a pair of vertically extending generally parallel limbs l 1-l lslightly bowed outwardly at I 8 at their lower ends and joined togetherat said ends by a. web I9 inc tegrally formed therewith.

The. clam-n web-or seat l 9.,, as"b.est shown in-Eigs. 2. and. 3...comprises a horizontally extendingmom.- ber 2!! generally parallel. tothebase LB; or the rah, and a hump 2t, 'iormedby bodily off-settingupwardly the center material. oithe forward end at the. seat. H1. Thelimbs, ll-all of. the. clamp are. further provided with. a pair ofaligned notches 22-42., said. notchesbeing formed in the upper generallyparallel disposed. portionsv of the said, limbs. and conforminggenerallyto the outer portion of the rail base. flange, ill, the notchesinitiating at the outer edge 23. oi the pper p rtion. oi the limbs 1slanting downg Wardly at 24. tow rdthe center part. of said limbs wherethe notches are. isposed for a, short. dis.- tance generallyparallel'to, the. outer edge of. the clamp as at 25 and, are nextdisposed. at right angles to the said edge 23, the bottom 24', of saidnotches disposed parallel to the member 2.0 of, the clamp web I9.

As illustrated, the clamp is disposed vertically of'the rail base andthe outeredges oi the clamp are parallel to the center line of the webof the rail, the bottom of the clamp, being parallel to the bottom ofthe base of'the rail, 7

The clip or spring member 14 projected through theperforation [-5provided bythe engagement; of the clamp with the rail, as] best shown inFigs.

2 and 5, comprises a loop portion 30, an ofiset hook portion 3lat theopposite end of the clip and an intermediate arched member 32 joiningthe hook and loop portions. The clip I4 is preferably of a widthslightly less than the width of the perforation l5 and the thickness ofthe clip at its point of engagement with the hump 2| is sufficient tocompressively engage the hump, thereby maintaining the arched portion 32of the clip under tension.

In applying the rail anchor, the notches 22-22 of the clamp engage theouter portion of the rail base flange, with one limb of the clampabutting a tie, as shown in Fig. 1, the hook portion 3| and the archedportion .32 of the clip being projected through the perforation l5 andupon striking the loop portion 30 a direct blow with a spike maul, theloop is wedged over the hump 2| and the hook 3| sprung over the oppositeedge of the rail base flange, locking the anchor-in, position.

It will be noted that, with the improved rail anchor of my invention,the base at the bottom of the clamp is in a horizontal rather than in anangular position, as in prior art patents to which I have previouslyreferred.

It will further be noted that the loop portion of the clip or springmember has an upper surface of the loop, as shown at or, provided with aflat portion which is adapted to be disposed horizontally with respectto the bottom of the rail base which it engages, and that the lowerportion of the loop is also provided with a flat portion, as shown at3!, which engages the flattened upper surfaces of the hump 2| whereby,upon load being applied to the rail as the rail tends to move downwardlyrelative to the clamp shoe 13, the loop portion abutting the hump 2!tends to increase the canting action of the clamp I3 on the rail baseflange ensuring positive clamping action irrespective of loadcommissions.

An advantage accruing from the improved positioning of the clamp andclip member of my present invention further resides in the fact that thesaid anchor will give more improved action in frozen ballast than inanchors of. the prior art. In connection with prior art devices, it hasbeen found that, where the ballast is not particularly clean and thereis insuflicient drainage, the same freezes into a solid form andnormally, upon the application of loads to the rail, the angularlydisposed clamp has a tendency to distort and be forced outwardly.

Although I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of myinvention, I am aware that numerous and extensive departures may be madetherefrom without however departing from the spirit of the invention andthe scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A two-piece rail anchor comprising a spring member having anintermediate arched portion adapted to underlie the base of a rail, anupwardly disposed hook end portion engageable with a rail flange edgeand a downwardly disposed loop portion at its opposite end, a generallychannel shaped clamp member of substantially W-shaped form, said clampcomprising a pair of vertically extending spaced limbs, said limbshaving a portion of each disposed generally parallel to each other andeach comprising a lower portion, said lower portions being generallybowed with respect to each other, a web portion connecting said upwardlyextending limbs, said web comprising a horizontally extending member anda hump portion, said hump being disposed in the forward portion of theweb and offset with respect to the horizontally extending portionthereof, a notch disposed in each of the limbs, said notches conformingin shape to the conformation of the outer portion of the rail flange,the clamp in operation being disposed vertically of the rail base, theouter edges of the clamp being parallel to the center line of the web ofthe rail, the horizontally extending portion of the web of the clampbeing parallel to the bottom of the base of the rail, the spring memberbeing projected through the space provided between the limb portions ofthe clamp below the notch portions of the limbs and above the web of theclamp, the hook portion being projected through said clamp initially,the intermediate portion of the spring member underlying the base of therail, the loop being in wedged contact with the oifset hump of the clampand one rail flange being wedged within the aligned notches disposed inthe limb members and the opposite rail flange edge being engaged by thehooked end portion of the clamp whereby the anchor is locked in positionwith the rail.

2. A two-piece rail anchor comprising a spring member having a hook endportion, a loop portion and a connecting portion disposed between saidhooked end and loop portions, and a clamp member of generally channelshaped form, said clamp member comprising a pair of upwardly extendinglimbs, said limbs having aligned notches disposed in the forward facesof the same and a web portion having an intermediate up standing humpportion, said hump portion initiating in the central portion of the webportion and being progressively more offset with respect to theremainder of the web portion as said hump approaches the forward end ofthe clamp, the spring member being inserted through the clamp memberbetween the limbs thereof, its hooked end portion being lockinglyengaged with a rail flange, the connecting portion underlying the rail:base and the loop portion wedgingly engaged with said offset humpportion, the said clamp being locked in engagement with a rail flangedisposed on the opposite side of the said rail from said first namedflange, said notches receiving the said second flange, said clamp beingdisposed vertically of the rail base, the outer faces of-the clamp beingparallel to the center line of the web of the rail.

JOHN WILLIAM SKEEL.

